[35] The reader, perhaps, will agree with us in thinking, that the last three lines of this poetry are unworthy of the rest, and put Jane in a theatrical attitude which she would not have effected.
[36] Some account of London, third edition, p. 394.
[37] Chalmers's British Poets, vol. iv., p. 91.
[38] "After which, once ended," says Stow, "the preacher gat him home, and never after durst look out for shame, but kept him out of sight like an owle; and when he once asked one that had been his olde friende, what the people talked of him, all were it that his own conscience well shewed him that they talked no good, yet when the other answered him, that there was in every man's mouth spoken of him much shame, it so strake him to the hart, that in a few daies after, he withered, and consumed away."--Brayley, vol. i., p. 312.
[39] From a MS. in the British Museum, quoted by Brayley, vol. ii., p. 312.
[40] A Dance of Death (for the subject was often repeated) is a procession of the various ranks of life, from the pope to the peasant, each led by a skeleton for his partner. Holbein enlarged it by the addition of a series of visits privately paid by Death to the individuals. The figurantes, in his work, by no means go down the dance "with an air of despondency." The human beings are unconscious of their partners (which is fine); and the Deaths are as jolly as skeletons well can be.
[42] See Todd's Milton, vol. vii.; Aubrey's Letters and Lives; and Ben Jonson's Poems. Gill's specimen of a satire is very bad, and the great laureate's answer is not much better. The first couplet of the latter, however, is to the purpose:--
"Shall the prosperity of a pardon still Secure thy railing rhymes, infamous Gill?"
[43] History of London, vol. ii., p. 1166.
[44] Life of Sir Christopher Wren, in the Library of Useful Knowledge, No. 24, p. 27.
The Church of St. Faith -- Booksellers of the Churchyard -- Mr. Johnson's -- Mr. Newberry's -- Children's Books -- Clerical Names of Streets near St. Paul's -- Swift at the top of the Cathedral -- Dr. Johnson at St. Paul's -- Paternoster Row -- Panyer's Alley -- Stationers' Hall -- Almanacks -- Knight-Riders' Street -- Armed Assemblies of the Citizens -- Doctor's Commons -- The Heralds' College -- Coats of Arms -- Ludgate -- Story of Sir Stephen Forster -- Prison of Ludgate -- Wyatt's Rebellion -- The Belle Sauvage Inn -- Blackfriars -- Shakspeare's Theatre -- Accident at Blackfriars in 1623 -- Printing House Square -- The Times -- Baynard's Castle -- Story of the Baron Fitzwalter -- Richard III. and Buckingham -- Diana's Chamber -- The Royal Wardrobe -- Marriages in the Fleet -- Fleet Ditch -- The Dunciad.